Like you, the New York Knicks were feeling a little lazy on Sunday morning. Sleeping in, needing a little coffee to get going.

Except they had some work to do — the New Orleans Hornets were at Madison Square Garden for a noon tipoff game. And after three straight losses the Knicks looked at this game as a chance to get back in a groove.

The first quarter the Knicks kept hitting the snooze bar but in the second quarter Carmelo Anthony (who finished with 27 points) and the Knicks defense woke up, the result ultimately being a 100-87 Knicks win.

Maybe it wasn’t just woke up, maybe it was getting something to eat — Carmelo Anthony said he had been on a fast the past 15 days. Mid-season the professional athlete decided not to eat. Think that might explain the slow starts?

The other guy that woke up — Mike Woodson. For the previous three games he had started Marcus Camby or Kurt Thomas, which had basically moved Carmelo back to the small forward rather than the power forward. They lost. Sunday Chris Copeland started and was the three, Carmelo was back at the four and… what do you know? What worked at the start of the season continued to work. Shocking.

One final thing that mattered was the Knicks got back to playing some defense… eventually. The Hornets shot 40.2 percent for the game and had an offensive rating of just 90.2 points per 100 possessions (they had averaged 102.2 the five previous games). That’s the kind of win the Knicks needed.

But the first quarter of the game looked like everything that had gone wrong with the Knicks recently. The Hornets led most of the way early with Eric Gordon looking strong, working off the ball and with it, and scoring 12 first quarter points (he was 1-of-5 from three, that part of his game has not quite come back yet).

It could have been a lot worse for Knicks, the Hornets missed a lot of open looks. New york hung close thanks to Copeland, who had 11 first half points.

Then Anthony, who had started the game shooting 1-of-10, finished the half 6-of-7 to push the Knicks into the lead with 18 second quarter points. That was more than the Hornets scored in the quarter, just 12, as they shot 22.2 percent for the 12 minutes. The Knicks were more aggressive in the second quarter, not coincidentally when Austin Rivers entered the game for the Hornets. He is struggling, had a couple turnovers and the Knicks were on a roll

In the second half the Knicks pulled away to win comfortably. Amare Stoudemire probably had his best game since his return — 12 points and three rebounds in 23 minutes, plus he was attacking and getting to the line.

For the Hornets, they look better than they did early in the season. Anthony Davis shows flashes of the athleticism and length that made him the No. 1 overall pick, he’s starting to figure it out. Gordon had 22 and is finding his grove, and you are starting to see some flow to their game.

A few years back in Philadelphia, the athletic K.J. McDaniels was a highlight factory and looked like a guy who could develop into a role player on the wing in the NBA.

Except, he never actually developed. Houston gave him a chance (three years at a total of $10 million), and it didn’t work out, then last season Brooklyn had him for 20 games, but they decided to move on.

Now Toronto is going to give him a chance, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

McDaniels’ agent later confirmed the news. This is a training camp, make-good contract for McDaniels. But unlike a lot of those contracts being handed out around this time, there is space on the Raptors roster for a player or two.

Before the KJ McDaniels partial, Toronto had $116.6M in guaranteed salary with 13 players + the $100K partial of Alfonzo McKinnie.

McDaniels will compete with Alfonzo McKinnie, Kennedy Meeks, and Kyle Wiltjer for one of the final roster spots in Toronto. Of that group, I’d most likely want to keep McDaniels because of the shot blocking and his potential — but his outside shot has to improve.

The Raptors can carry 15 on the roster and very possibly will until at least Jan. 10, which is the date these partially guaranteed deals become fully guaranteed for the season. Toronto is flirting with the tax line, and ownership is not going to want to pay the tax for this team, so if they do carry 15 they likely will cut it to 14 by that date.

The #DriveByDunkChallenge has been a fun distraction this summer. If you don’t know what it is, it essentially involves NBA players jumping out of their cars to dunk on regular folks on community basketball hoops.

There are still some serious doubts about whether the Celtics will be able to unseat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference, but perhaps they won’t need to wait for long. Rumors are starting to trickle in about LeBron James leaving Ohio, so maybe by the time we are used to seeing Hayward in Celtics green next season they will have less competition out east.

It appears as though Houston billionaire Dan Friedkin will have some competition if he decides to bid for the Rockets. Namely, former NBA big man Dikembe Mutombo.

Mutombo played in the NBA from 1991-2009, ending his career with five seasons in Houston. The franchise apparently made an impact on the Hall of Fame center, as he is apparently looking to buy the franchise per an interview with USA Today.

Speaking with Adi Joseph over at FTW, Mutombo would not give out names of his partners but said that he will be able to make a bid in the coming weeks.

“I’m putting together a group to buy the Houston Rockets, and we’re getting close,” he said. “Getting close in the next couple weeks, maybe I’ll have a chance. Lot of people, lot of people and good people with a lot of money.”

With Leslie Alexander’s decision to sell the team, it certainly would be interesting to get another NBA player as part of team ownership in this league.